Channel 4 Wins England Football Rights
England men’s national team football matches in the UEFA Nations League, European Qualifiers to UEFA EURO 2024, and international friendlies will be shown live on Channel 4.
Under terms of a new agreement, the free-to-air broadcaster will show 20 live England matches in total between 2022 and 2024. It takes over as the national team’s broadcast partner from ITV and Sky.
The deal will kick off in June with the summer’s Nations League fixtures, with home and away encounters against Hungary and matches against Italy and Germany. European qualification begins next spring, with the draw for qualifying groups taking place in October. The deal does not include England’s matches at the upcoming 2022 World Cup, which will be broadcast by the BBC and ITV.
Sky had initially been expected to keep the Nations League matches but has been beaten by Channel 4 in the surprising agreement. UEFA conducted a central auction of rights for the new two-year cycle, boosting Channel 4’s hopes of securing all the matches.
It follows a successful sporting year for Channel 4, which acquired one-off rights to show Emma Raducanu’s US Open final triumph and the climax to the Formula One season in Abu Dhabi and attracted 20m viewers to its coverage of the Tokyo Paralympic Games. Other major live sports coverage on Channel 4 have also included: the British & Irish Lions; England’s Test tour of India and Ireland rugby union internationals. The news comes after the government confirmed its intention to privatise the public service broadcaster.
Channel 4’s Chief Content Officer, Ian Katz, said, “This deal shows Channel 4 can compete for some of the biggest properties in sport and will bring substantial new audiences to our award-winning slate of original programming.”
Head of Sport, Pete Andrews, added, “England matches against Germany are always an exciting prospect and I’m sure the team will be keen to set the record straight against Italy after the defeat in the final of the UEFA EUROs.
“We’re absolutely delighted to have secured this deal with UEFA and I’m sure England fans will be looking forward to the summer with great anticipation.”
With the World Cup live on BBC and ITV in November and December, Channel 4’s deal means that all the men’s national team fixtures will be live on free-to-air TV until 2024.
